Should governments subsidise homeschooling?

This question was inspired by the The Infographics Show's video School vs Homeschool: Which Student Does Better?. I personally don't know anyone who was homeschooled, but perhaps that's unsurprising.

Advantages of homeschooling	Disadvantages of homeschooling
Higher SAT results and admission rates into prestigious universities	Homeschooling parent(s) will need to be competent in the appropriate subjects
No or comparatively low chance of bullying, school massacre, drug use or teen pregnancy	Potential lack of friendships
Public schools may be poor quality	Homesschooling parent(s) might not be able to work as much or at all
Some experts claim we aren't having enough family time, so why not kill 2 birds with 1 stone by having kids homeschooled by their family	Some parents homeschool in order to brainwash their children with religious dogma or conspiracy theories
"Homeschooling focuses on learning and mastering concepts, not scoring good grades"	Attention may need to be divided among multiple children if you have multiple children
Public schools and private schools may stifle the development of curiosity and critical acumen	Potential lack of social skills and experiences due to lack of experiences with interpersonal challenges
Can focus on tackling individual weaknesses and fostering individual strengths	Professional connections, which might be essential in certain fields of work, might not form
The cost of homeschooling to parents is far lower than the private school costs, or how much the government spends per student in public schools	Not all parents want to be teachers, and homeschooling parents need high levels of patience
Some parents have justified worries that public schools might teach nationalist propaganda or at least, poor quality material; while religious private schools teach religious dogma

Personally, I am glad I wasn't homeschooled. Even though I didn't focus that much on friendships (and I didn't bother with intimate relationships at all) in high school, at least high school provided me with educational resources (e.g lab equipment) that would be unfeasible for my family to acquire and set up. Sure, going to public school in Australia is a far from perfect experience, but at least it helped me learn to deal with interpersonal challenges.

But back to the main question, do the benefits of homeschooling mean that it would be a good idea for governments to encourage and subsidise homeschooling?

Submitted July 19, 2018 at 06:13PM by Fart_Gas https://ift.tt/2LnDrVz